Mask Profiles: The Scorpion People

Newest update: The Scorpion People. Inspiration for these enigmatic lovelies came from the mask stylings of Libby Appel. By studying the style of her neutral masks while racking my brain for a useful way to portray these guards of the Mountains of Mashu interestingly, I sketched these two. One is meant to be female and the other male, but I don't imagine it matters much if the gender of the actors beneath matches or not. They allow Gilgamesh to pass with little resistance ultimately, and their eyes are meant to cause fatal paralysis in mortals - such is why I love what the Appel masks' eyes do. Their emotion is neutral, but the dark eyes draw your focus immediately as well as the sloping features surrounding them. I don't believe I want much color in these masks, but if there -is- some, I'd want it to be from a neutral palette as well.

I look forward to playing around with the actors in devising the movement of the scorpion folk and the voices they'll have! They don't hang about very long, but I wanted them to stand out in their wake.

More to come!

"At high tide, fish eat ants. At low tide, ants eat fish." - Thailand

-Jo-

Mask Profiles: Humbaba

Greetings one and all! Great strides were had today in my attempts to sketch a certain guardian in A Man Sees Death in Things today! I've been sketching this entire week in hopes that my pencil could stumble upon the notorious "Humbaba", whom Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight in the Cedar Forest. I wanted this battle in particular to be quite epic in its own right, and deserving of a quite epic mask.

What I came up with is something along the lines of the "mask-headdress" utilization used to give a single actor (hopefully a very large actor!) as much as a whole extra foot of height with the mask worn -atop- the head. The actor would be able to see his surroundings through a veil at the level of Humbaba's shaggy beard.

Design-wise, Humbaba ended up an oversized mask. I wanted this to give his form size and weight otherwise not gifted to normal maskery tactics. I wish to provide some imposing gloves to the actor playing Humbaba so that his fingers and hand-size might also be increased. (If there's time, I'd love to distress/wrap some boots to do the same with the feet.) The mask would be made of VERY lightweight material and will probably have to be fixed to the actor using a chinstrap to counterbalance the weight and height. I anticipate though that whomever is big enough to handle this mask should have no problem with its weight, but I hold the actor's comfort as my priority regardless. Humbaba's features are very wide, primitive, horned features. I struggled a long time with whether or not I wanted to make him "bull-like", but settled on him being a sort of hulking gargoyle/devil creature instead. His horns, I've decided, will not look as pristine as they do here, but they are reminiscent of ram horns that curve to front like mandibles. His shaggy beard will be just chock full of disturbing goodies too -- bones, beads, leaves, spit...just awesome stuff. I adore him for his grossness and hope you do too.


"The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand."
- Frank Herbert -

-Jo-

Mask Profiles: Enkidu

Mask Sketch Profiles: Utnapishtim

Greetings all. Above you will see beginning sketches for the legendary immortal "Noah" figure in the tale of Gilgamesh as I've interpreted him for this project: Utnapishtim. I interpreted him with a bit of age to his features - since he indicates he's "decaying" - but I didn't want to make him scary. This might have figured into my original thoughts on his facial features, for my research images are a bit spooky in comparison, but I'm surprised and delighted that he's turning out rather warm. I believe this is because of my feelings on him emparting "fatherly" vibes on Gilgamesh when he visits. Also, Utnapishtim speaks of hope and reconciliation with one's fate and place in the world, so I wanted his face/mask to be one that comforted the viewer, even if it's a bit rough in places. Utnapishtim's right eye was "damaged", but I've more scarred it shut than done anything gory with it. I don't want it to be distracting to the action. I'm still trying to decide if I want the mask to be symmetrical around the mouth or no - I like the idea of him chipping away like an old monument...
Also, in the air of Libby Appel mask stylings, I've made his expression a bit enigmatic. I'll go further with this in sculpting, but I wish to give him an ambiguous enough face that the actor behind the mask will have some freedom to create who he/she thinks he is for -them-.

I'm excited - are you? More more more on the way.

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." -Abraham Lincoln

-Jo-

Mask Sketch Profiles: Urshanabi

Greetings world! I realize it's been awhile since my last post, but you must forgive me. My laptop was experiencing some unpleasant malfunctions and had to be sent in for repair. All is well now, and I'm able to show you some sketches as they progress. Expect more in a more frequent succession.

These are beginning sketches for "Urshanabi", the boatman who traverses the deathly river that forms a barrier between the world and the immortal Utnapishtim. I've taken some of my design from flatter, more archaic and edgy African mask designs. Something about the flatness of the mask, the thin quality, and the slit nature of the eye placement fit in my mind when I considered the cynical gent who'd ferry across the would-be Styx with no one to entertain him but himself. I've tweaked the original image as the sketch progressed to be longer, thinner, and perhaps flatter. I imagine it'll be made from either bristol or foamcore board with paint to give it a shabby-chic chipped-paint look, as though the "ornament" of driving the boat has worn away with the paint itself. I consider him a charming Grim Reaper sort, and imagine him carrying an oar with him like a staff when on land, having grown so accustomed to rowing it may even be part of his gestures. (But that's for an actor to decide, not I. ^_~) Enjoy. More to come.

"All of these lines across my face, they tell you the story of who I am."
-Unknown-

-Jo-

Gilgamesh Update: First Draft Complete

Well ladies and gentleman, after planting myself in the summer sun with an extension cord for my laptop, my research, and a mug of Coke classic to nurse, it is finally finished! The first draft of A Man Sees Death in Things: A Masked Piece has finally reached completion. It rounded out at a chubby 36 pages total. I'm hoping to prune it down to a lean low-twenties number with the coming month of June. With its completion, I may now sketch with a bit more freedom and certainty about the structure of the piece, and with the second round of edits, copies will be available for those already involved with the project as well as those hoping to design. (My fingers are crossed on the latter front!) Happy Memorial Day weekend and be safe.

"Love Love Love. It's Easy." - The Beatles

-Jo-

P.S. The link is to inspirational music by Zoe Keating. Enjoy.

Gilgamesh Update: Script Progress aka "Letting it Be"

Greetings. I write tonight just to get some thoughts out of my head and in concrete form. I've nearly finished my interpretation of that beloved Sumerian/Mesopotamian tale The Epic of Gilgamesh, but I'm afraid I've hit a bit of a snag - a minor snag, but a snag nonetheless. I've come to realize that some of my editing is not as a result of what will fit into an hour'ish stage production of this piece, but rather because of what I worry an audience will accept. This is unacceptable! I realized this annoying fact early this afternoon when I spoke with my would-be dramaturg James E.W. Bennett, who cautioned me to "never alter the integrity of a piece for worry of offending an audience." Such advice came at a necessary time, for I'd considered cutting what is an integral point in the epic for fear that an audience might not accept it: the prostitute and Enkidu's blaming of her for civilizing him. I'd considered cutting this point/the related lines because I worried the audience would perceive this as a chauvinistic jeer at women and would distance viewers from the heartbreak of Enkidu's death. Also, I feared that the line of the piece, "...and a man sees death in things," would be compromised by this throwback to the prostitute. By speaking with James, I've decided that not should this line remain, but it is essential to the audience's understanding of the entirety of the plot!

This epic is centered around the notion that one must nurture that yin and yang of one's being in order to achieve that age-old state of true manhood and stability. The only reason Enkidu is introduced to the knowledge of the outside world is because of the temple prostitute teaching him the ways of "modern man". This knowledge ultimately led him to his would-be soulmate Gilgamesh. Likewise, had Gilgamesh not acknowledged his loneliness and sent said prostitute to Enkidu in the woods, having heard of a "beast of the Steppe", he would not have been united with his other half. Therefore, a woman is not the bane that one might be tempted to assume Enkidu is referring to, but the knowledge that comes with knowing the larger scope of being. That is to say that with the joy of knowing one's whole self is the pain of the realization of the existence of horrid things in this life - namely Death in this narrative, or the prospect that joy itself is not everlasting. To sum up, Enkidu damns his newfound knowledge, for he's found joys he has to let go of in his death - he's not damning women. In knowing/recognizing this fully, I can include these lines unaltered and allow the audience to make what they will of them as is their right.

Also, I've discovered an interesting pattern in the latter half of Gilgamesh that I'm not sure what to do with yet. Where Gilgamesh worries he'll be lonesome now that Enkidu is dead, he encounters/is apart of various pairs throughout part III of the narrative. First, he encounters the pair of the Scorpion people that guard the mountain of Mashu, a man and his wife that can kill at a glance like Medusa. Second, he encounters Siduri who refreshes him and offers to be a pair with him and to love him in the place of his friend - he refuses and journeys on. Next he encounters Urshanabi, who in one translation travels the would-be river Styx with Gilgamesh in another pair because Gilgamesh destroys the pair of stones that otherwise would have led him across alone. Gilgamesh is paired with Utnapishtim for a lengthy portion during the Flood explanation like father and son, and lastly Utnapishtim (in utter opposition to the notion of the "female place" in this narrative earlier) is eternally paired with his beloved wife, with whom he shares such an intimate connection that she and he need not speak. I'm especially interested in exploring -that- relationship in mask-format and rehearsal. Overall, these last scenes become interesting 2-3 person scenes and very intimate where the first two-thirds of the tale were rather "epic" in proportional comparison. Interesting...

More to come as I delve deeper/try to preserve the text for what it is rather than what I fear an audience will understand in play-format. Stay tuned and think on life.

"Let your belly be full. Make every day a day of rejoicing. Dance and play every night. Let your raiment be clean. Let your wife rejoice in your breast, and cherish the little one holding your hand. -- Old Babylonian version (Sippar iii.1-14)"

-Jo-

P.S. A short video of some spoken-word presentation of the epic to lyre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSWEeBGhz4M&feature=related